Sunita Upadhyay allegedly mixed a lethal agricultural fumigant, aluminum phosphide in the dinner and gave it to her daughters. Rakesh Kumar Upadhyaya, the victim's husband and father works at Bhushan Steel. He was interrogated by the policemen.

"Upadhyaya said came home from work around 7.30pm on Monday. He was not feeling well and also had a minor argument . He woke up around 5.30am and heard his wife and daughters vomiting. He rushed them to Sarvodaya Hospital, where they died soon after," Jitendra Kumar Shahi, superintendent of police.

Dr Ashok Malik was quoted as saying, "If the patients had been brought in a little earlier they could have been saved. The poison had spread to almost all the organs by the time they arrived."

"I really don't know what happened . There is discord in every family; we also had minor tiffs, but nothing more," said Upadhyaya.

Meanwhile, he admitted that his son had hanged himself to death on Sep 19, 2001. One of his daughter was working as a teacher and one was studying engineering.